Online music streaming provider Spotify has announced a native application for Linux operating systems. This is the first time Spotify has released a Linux client, although some users have previously reported being able to install the Windows application using the Wine emulation environment.

According to the blog post announcing the development, the app contains most of the features of its Windows and Mac OS siblings. However, playing local mp3 files is not supported, due to "issues regarding decoding of local music on the Linux platform". Also, it appears that displaying adverts has been problematic for the developers, which unfortunately rules out the free-with-ads model available on the other platforms.

Like the company's mobile apps, the Linux version is available to Spotify Premium subscribers only. The company will offer no official support for the application, but does promise regular updates and feature parity with Mac and Windows.

Users running Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu can install the app by following these instructions: